Kim Medina, the new Executive Director of District Council 1707, and President Linda McPherson discuss what improvements they’d like to make for their members. Ms. Medina cut her job’s salary from $180,000 to $90,000. She is currently serving roughly 20,000 members which consist of Day Care, Head Start, Social Services, Fundraising, and Home Care workers. Ms. Medina, a 30-year union veteran not only has a thorough knowledge of what it takes to lead the membership but acknowledges that a new day is upon us, which includes equality and unity as the driving factors. Her thorough knowledge stems from childhood as she learned first hand the ins and outs of what it meant to be a union member and fighting for just cause. Ms. Medina’s father was the chief shop steward in the District Council of Carpenters and her grandfather organized the Hispanic Postal Association in the city in the 1920s. She has stepped down as president of DC 1707’s Local 253, which represents members in teaching organizations such as the Institute for International Education. Executive Director Kim Medina said that she wants to increase her union’s visibility and improves relations to propel the union to higher levels.

Mrs. McPherson, who was born in Guyana and has been a member of the union for 18 years as a Family Services Coordinator for Medgar Evers Head Start Center, said she wanted the union to return to its more-activist days. “I’ve seen the union at such a great point,” she said. “The building was alive at six, seven in the evening and we always held events for our members and for the kids.”